I actually looked at the competitors ranking #3 and #4 for the phrase "download sheet music" since your ranking 5th.  Either way, its not a matter of too much or too little.  It's how much of the link profile is authentic vs how much is made up of stuff like this....

http://www.dionneco.com/2011/02/love-is-a-parallax/

that's what I meant by fake links.

I think what you may be missing is how complex the situation really is.  There's a lot more to be considered than a number in Open Site Explorer - which is actually only a portions of what's really out there.

You may also want to look at changes you can make on-site.  I'm a firm believer that proper HTML, accessibility, UX and all that really matter.

Can't say I've been in that situation, but search engines seem to interpret that tag as an on/off situation.   and I think you probably know that your problems aren't related to or able to be solved by robots meta tags.

You need less fake links.  OSE finds well over half a million links from 3K root domains to your site.  Look at your competitors - a few thousand links from  a handful of domains.

It's a shame because it seems like the internet wanted to make you the authority naturally - You've got a handful of really solid links coming in.  If you could shed the spam somehow you'd be doing a lot better.

So yea, stating the obvious, I know.  best of luck to you and hope the site recovers!

If possible, find someone who will meet with you in person and/or speak to you on the phone on a regular basis.  Poor communication and low-quality work seem to go hand in hand.  Some SEO companies have email-only communication policies.  Stuff like that - RED FLAG.  I'd also look out for anyone who stresses the need for "link building" without doing any research into your site/market/competitors.

A lot of people on the SEOmoz recommended list are proven industry-leader types.  No question you'll get the high quality work you're looking for and more.

All of our websites are wordpress sites hosted by BlueHost, and I've been completely satisfied.  They are however lower traffic sites (30-100) visitors per day. When I called them I think I talked to someone in Utah and the support was great.

If I were in the market for new hosting right now I'd probably be looking into Media Temple.

I also believe it's absolutely useful, ODP data still gets aggregated by smaller search engines, other directories, etc...but like Robert said it's not gaurunteed, pay close attention to make sure you choose the most appropriate category and the listing description/title is quality for the best chances.

Good luck!

Hi PJ,  to make sure the sitemap actually gets crawled, its a good idea to have it linked.  This way search crawlers hit that link and then the sitemap - which obviously has links to all pages,  categories, etc. as well as info about how important pages are and how often they change.

The point is just to make sure your pages and images get properly indexed - you can also submit xml sitempaps and check up on indexing in google webmaster tools.